Port Angeles School District Hazard Mitigation Plan

The Port Angeles School District Hazard Mitigation Plan covers each of the major natural hazards that pose significant threats to the District.

The mission statement of the Port Angeles School District Hazard Mitigation Plan is to:

"Proactively facilitate and support district-wide policies, practices, and programs that make the Port Angeles School District more disaster resistant and disaster resilient."

Making the Port Angeles School District more disaster resistant and disaster resilient means taking proactive steps and actions to protect life safety, reduce property damage, minimize economic losses and disruption, and shorten the recovery period from future disasters. This plan is an educational and planning document that is intended to raise awareness and understanding of the potential impacts of natural hazard disasters and to help the District deal with natural hazards in a pragmatic and cost-effective manner.

Completely eliminating the risk of future disasters in the Port Angeles School District is neither technologically possible nor economically feasible. However, substantially reducing the negative consequences of future disasters is achievable with the implementation of a pragmatic Hazard Mitigation Plan.

Mitigation simply means actions that reduce the potential for negative consequences from future disasters. That is, mitigation actions reduce future damages, losses, and casualties. Effective mitigation planning will help the Port Angeles School District deal with natural hazards realistically and rationally. That is, to identify where the level of risk from one or more hazards may be unacceptably high and then to find cost effective ways to reduce such risk. Mitigation planning strikes a pragmatic middle ground between unwisely ignoring the potential for major hazard events on one hand and unnecessarily overreacting to the potential for disasters on the other hand.

This mitigation plan focuses on the hazards that pose the greatest threats to the District’s facilities and people: Earthquake, flood, wildlife and urban interface fire and landslide. Other natural hazards that pose lesser threats are addressed briefly.
The 2015 Port Angeles School District’s Hazard Mitigation Plan is a living document which will be reviewed and updated periodically.